


A Fall from Grace

by Alexandria (heartfullofelves)



Category: Marco Polo (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, Fix-It, Presumed Dead
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-17
Updated: 2018-04-17
Packaged: 2019-04-24 03:36:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14347164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heartfullofelves/pseuds/Alexandria
Summary: No longer a concubine, Jing Fei creates a new life for herself.





	A Fall from Grace

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ConvenientAlias](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ConvenientAlias/gifts).



> Jing Fei lives - as she should! Enjoy.

Jia Sidao punished her, of course. Jing Fei knew her life was forfeit when she told the lie, but her sufficient charms persuaded him to let her live and punish her some other way. He cut her cheek, marring her beauty, and expelled her from the palace.

She wept. She wept for a whole day. The two close to her heart, Mei Lin and her daughter, were gone, and the facial scar that was sure to form meant no man would pay to lie with her ever again. She had nothing; she _was_ nothing.

In her aimless wandering, she stumbled upon the wool shop her uncle ran with his wife. She admired the yarns through her tears.

“Child?”

She looked up at her uncle. She blinked. Then she wiped her face and apologised for scaring customers away.

When he offered her shelter, she accepted it with indescribable gratitude.

* * *

She repaid her uncle by helping in the shop. Her aunt taught her how to spin sheep’s wool into yarn they could sell. At first, the spinning wheel with its mysteries and moving parts fascinated her, like a child with a doll, but over time it became a mere tool.

The days were long, and hard on her body. She missed her old life of luxury at times. When it came, they all suffered in the Mongols’ defeat of the Song dynasty. But they survived.

One morning, she was rearranging the brightly coloured yarns on display when she heard two sets of footsteps enter the shop.

“Jing Fei!” a young voice cried in delight.

She found herself being suffocated by Ling Ling. She’d sent the girl away a year ago, for her safety, but she’d somehow returned to Xiangyang and found Jing Fei. She squeezed Ling Ling and wondered at how she’d grown.

Her heart skipped a beat when she laid eyes on Mei Lin standing behind her daughter, weary but beautiful. Mei Lin choked, looking as though she didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Jing Fei helped her by holding out her arms and nudging Ling Ling out of the way to explore all the pretty yarns. Jing Fei clasped Mei Lin to her as tight as she could, burying her face in Mei Lin’s shoulder.

“I thought you dead,” whispered Mei Lin, touching the long scar on Jing Fei’s cheek.

“I thought _you_ were dead,” Jing Fei replied, blinking back tears. She couldn’t breathe, and something stuck in her throat.

Mei Lin pressed her lips first to Jing Fei’s scar, then to Jing Fei’s lips. “I can’t believe I found you here,” she said. “But it’s all over and I’m not letting you or my daughter go, not again.” Her voice was somehow soft and fierce at the same time.

Jing Fei couldn’t help it, but joy and relief had overcome her. She laughed and then cried in Mei Lin’s arms. Where she belonged.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Apparently the spinning wheel was invented in either India, Iran, or China roughly around 1000 CE. The more you know!


End file.
